Robbie Nicol

Director

Robbie is a Professor of Place-Based Education at the University of Edinburgh where he is a teacher, researcher and residential education campaigner. His life motivation comes from the realisation that human activities are fundamentally altering the planet’s ability to sustain all species including the human race. As an educator he believe that the outdoors provide places where individuals can rediscover their direct dependence on the planet through embodied experiences. In his teaching and research Robbie is constantly experimenting with creative ways to engage students with places and landscapes that can help transform the global ecological crises into meaningful everyday actions that promote sustainability, as well as personal health and well-being. Robbie advocates the need for integrating outdoor, indoor and online teaching to promote a variety of learning opportunities for contemporary human beings of all ages.

This means not just reimagining green and blue outdoor spaces, but also reimagining our cities where most people live. Robbie is often found in the streets of Edinburgh challenging his students to love the city’s concrete and built up places in the way they have come to love green and blue spaces.

Robbie is co-author of Outdoor Learning Across the Curriculum: Theory and Guidelines for Practice (2023).



All blog posts by Robbie Nicol